Bullpen Takes A Major Blow

MLB.com's Pirates beat writer Jennifer Langosch announced on her blog today that relief pitcher Joel Hanrahan will likely miss part of the season due to right flexor-pronator strain. The strain will result in Hanrahan, who was one of four pitchers considered a lock going into Spring Training, missing a portion of the start of the regular season. The length is unknown at this time.

Hanrahan is scheduled to meet with Dr. Patrick DeMeo of the West Penn Allegheny Health System and Pirates Medical Director today. An exam with Dr. James Andrews sometime next week.

Hanrahan stated he had some discomfort towards the end of last season and experienced a flare-up during the Pirates mini-camp last month.

Hanrahan came to the Pirates on June 30th last year, along with left fielder Lastings Milledge, from the Washington Nationals, in a trade for relieve pitcher Sean Burnett and outfielder Nyjer Morgan. on July 9, 2009 Hanrahan probably became the first pitcher to win a professional ball game while at home when he won a game for the Nationals, while being a member of the Pirates roster. All of this was thanks to a delayed game from May 5 where Hanrahan was the pitcher of record, as the Nationals played the Astros and made it up on that July afternoon.

Let's Go Bucs!

McLouth & Maholm Arbitration

It was announced yesterday that Paul Maholm and Nate McLouth will head to arbitration hearings in February on the 10th and 17th respectively.

Given Maholm's strong performances over the past year and a half, I expect him to win his case, if the two sides don't reach an agreement by then. However, I expect that these two sides will come to some sort of agreement prior to that. I'm expecting a multi-year deal worth somewhere between 9-13 million dollars. Maholm is the kind of pitcher that will be a leader, through his actions more so than his words, and will be important to the stability of the pitching rotation in the next couple of years.

I expect Nate McLouth to head to his hearing on the 17th. The fact that McLouth is a Gold Glove All-Star, I don't expect to see these two sides reach an agreement. As several others have stated on message boards and blogs, McLouth will probably be offered a standard 1 year deal for the 3.8 million he is asking for.

If that is the case for McLouth, look for guys like Brandon Moss, Jose Tabata, Nyjer Morgan, and Steve Pearce to be front runners in filling out the outfield in 2010.

Let's Go Bucs!

New Uniforms and More

The much anticipated new jerseys were revealed today at PiratesFest, and I must say that I am meeting them with mixed emotions. Let's take a look at this picture, and I will simply move from left to right with commentary on each jersey.



I'll start with last year's lone Pirate All-Star, Nate McLouth. Nate was able to shine on the national stage in last year's All-Star game. Unfortuniately, he seems to be lacking an All-Star look in this new solid black jersey. The button up jersey features a gold "P" over the left chest and the player number on the lower right side of the jersey. HATE IT! I say get ride of these things and bring back the red jerseys.

Moving on. Our next model is Matt Capps, superstar closer and all around swell guy. He is wearing the pin stripes with the vest jersey and t-shirt under it. This is the look the Pirates have had for the past several years. Since I've had season tickets, I've seen these jerseys worn mostly on Sunday afternoon games. I like it, it's in.

Next is Mr. Nyjer Morgan. As you can see, Nyjer is sporting a solid gray away uniform. It's a mix of the old unis from around 1990 which had the cursive "Pittsburgh" across the chest and the recent away jeresys. They have had the gray look for about two decades now, but the 1990's is the most recent I can remember. I like it, it's in.

Finally, there is the 2006 NL Batting Champion Freddy Sanchez. He is sporting a uniform simlar to that of Nyjer, only in white, and it says "Pirates" across the chest. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, but I'll end the uniform discussion with an I like it, it's in.

It looks like "Mr. Almost Perfect" Jeff Karstens will be sitting out the first week or so of Spring Training. Due to some elbow soreness from minicamp a few weeks back, Karstens was shut down for a few days, and it looks like the Pirates will be taking it easy on him for the start of training. All the better in my opinion. There is no need to rush him. We've seen that he has potential to be good (held opponents scoreless through his first 15 innings last year). I'm looking forward to big things from this kid in the upcoming season.

I'll be back tomorrow with more musings. Look for my PiratesFest update on Sunday.

Let's Go Bucs

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photo credit: Players modeling new uniforms. pirates.com